How to get rid of a cold sore

While there are several drugs available designed to help heal cold sores, they have been shown to be limited in their efficacy and therefore many people have decided how to get rid of a cold sore using alternative or natural remedies.

Common alternative treatments include tea tree oil or lemon balm, These act on the virus, helping the body rid itself of the symptoms faster. If you want to find about these kinds of treatments and learn more about how to get rid of a cold sore see the Cold Sore Treatment Guide.

Simple but effective treatment for cold sores

The drug companies have been busy for years trying to find a really effective treatment for cold sores, but remain frustrated by their attempts to date. Because of this many people have turned to natural remedies, and one of the more popular is lysine rich foods or supplements.

However there is another essential amino acid that appears to encourage cold sore outbreaks; many people find that by reducing the amount of arginine in their diets, or by adjusting the balance between lysine and arginine in their body they suffer fewer and less severe attacks, showing that effective results can be achieved with what appear to be quite minor adjustments. Read more about treatment for cold sores.

The hows and whys of preventing cold sores

They always say prevention is better than a cure, but the problem with cold sores is that prevention really is the best option as there is no cure yet. Naturally it is better to avoid catching the virus that causes them, but if you do become infected it isn't the end of the world as you can take steps that help in preventing cold sores.

Looking after the immune system is vital in this, which may mean making some lifestyle changes. Take a long hard look at what you eat and drink to start with. A good balanced diet, low in fat and sugars and with plenty of fresh fruit and veg is ideal. And if you need to lose weight, do it, while taking regular exercise will help enormously in boosting your immune system and preventing cold sores from occurring so frequently or severely.

Do home remedies for cold sores work?

The range of home remedies for cold sores spans many different types of treatment and while the application of ice doesn't sound extreme, using clear nail varnish to treat cold sores doesn't distinctly bizarre. However, with lemon balm and tea tree oil being long connected to natural healing treatments, it is clear that the spectrum is wide.

Most people advise against using nail varnish as a cold sore treatment, although so many have claimed it works too. And it is true that the condition can be so uncomfortable that sufferers will resort to trying just about any of the various home remedies for cold sores mentioned.

Learning how to get rid of cold sores

While one approach to find how to get rid of cold sores is simply to try what the experts recommend, a better strategy may be to make a note of all the treatments you try and try and gauge the effectiveness of each. Obviously you can't try everything in one go, because if something works you won't know which specific treatment it was and so ideally you would try one treatment for each cold sore outbreak.

Ideally you should take a prolific notes, recording the times at which symptoms occurred and treatments started, as well as the overall time of the outbreak and any specific points you notice such as level of discomfort or any thing else at all. By collating the data carefully and analyzing it later you really can learn how to get rid of cold sores on your own.

Preventative cold sore treatment

For most sufferers, cold sore treatment only occurs when the first symptoms start to appear, often at the tingle or blister stage. Of course it is natural to want to rid ourselves of the sore, but there is more we can do in the treatment of cold sores.

However, it pays to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If we can boost our immune system so that cold sore outbreaks are less frequent we change the emphasis of treatment. While this may require some big lifestyle changes, long term cold sore treatment means we are likely to suffer few attacks and less severe.

Early use of cold sore remedy minimizes healing time

Whenever you suffer the tingling sensation of a cold sore, you need to know that is the time to act. The choice for choosing a cold sore remedy is wide, with both conventional treatments such as Abreva, and alternative remedies. Abreva protects the cold sore while fighting the virus, minimizing healing time.

However, conventional medicines are not the only option. Simple natural remedies such as the application of lemon balm work well. A member of the mint family it has been used for centuries as a healing aid. And tea tree oil has also been found to be beneficial, while a diet high in lysine can also help.

This is just a small sample of ideas to treat cold sores and goes a little way to showing that while conventional medicine can help, it is not the only cold sore remedy available to sufferers.

What conventional treatment of cold sores can't achieve

Conventional treatment of cold sores completely focuses on getting rid of the symptoms of an attack, rather than tackling the root cause. Medicines are designed to aid healing of the blister and lesion, rather than preventing them from occurring and to be fair, alternative and home remedies also focus on this.

The bad news is that currently there is no treatment to get rid of the virus - once infected always infected. However, by stepping back from the immediate symptoms of cold sores and evaluating our lifestyles we can make a difference. Ask yourself what you are doing to add stress to your body. Are you eating right? Getting enough exercise? Taking the opportunity to really relax? If the answer to these is "no" then you should make some changes towards the better - holistic treatment of cold sores rather than remedial treatment.

How your body can get rid of cold sores faster

It is an unfortunate fact that once infected with herpes simplex virus we remain infected for our entire life. However there are measures we can take to help heal the sores faster, as well as reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. The immune system is responsible for suppressing infections and so it is the case with cold sores; when the immune system is no longer strong enough to counter herpes simplex virus it begins to replicate and cause a new sore. That is why we often experience attacks when we get a cold or flu, or due to stress or tiredness.

It therefore makes sense that by doing all we can to look after our immune system can help us fight the cold sore virus, and that basically means looking after our health. Changing our diet to be more balanced, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and low fat and sugar; taking moderate regular exercise such as walking for 30 minutes per day; and ensuring we get adequate sleep and avoid stressful situations all help with this. By changing our habits we can help our bodies get rid of cold sores faster and reduce the number of attacks we have. Don't you want to benefit from that?

Why cold sore treatments are limited

With people being affected by cold sores since the Roman times, it should be no surprise that there are so many cold sore treatments available, ranging from remedies that must have been discovered by those same Romans to the latest drugs. Whichever treatment you choose, there is one problem with the condition that you can't overcome - the fact is that cold sores are incurable.

There is some good news though - cold sores aren't serious, although they often
feel that they are. They feel awful, they make you feel awful, but they don't create a problem for you unless the virus spreads to your eye. This is easy to avoid though, so don't touch your sores unless completely necessary and always wash you hands after applying cold sore treatments.

Getting rid of cold sores: keep your mind open

Learning how your body responds to different remedies is one of the keys to successfully getting rid of cold sores. One treatment may work wonders for one person, but be completely useless in another. Therefore it is vital to keep open minded about treatments for cold sores and watch out for when new ideas come available.

For instance there is a new product based on intra-red light that claims to aid healing of cold sores, which while it sounds bizarre, might actually work for some people; and if one of those people is you then you life will be improved. Remember that many people suffer from the condition and so there are probably people who have tried things you've never heard of in their quest for getting rid of cold sores; listen to them and keep you mind open.

Cold Sore Medication

The effectiveness of cold sore medication can vary from person to person, with some responding well to treatment, while others show no improvement at all. Research gas been ongoing for years, with the medical community disappointed at the lack of real progress in this area and natural remedies have been shown to be just as effective is shortening the healing time.

Among the popular medications is Abreva, which uses a concentrated doe of docosanol as its active ingredient. Docosanol is found naturally in some foods, but in much lower does and one of the big advantages of Abreva is that it doesn't require a prescription. Among the most popular prescription only medicines for cold sores is Zovirix, whose active ingredient is an anti-viral agent known as acycloviris.

If you suffer from chronic cold sore outbreaks then it is worth giving these products a go to learn which cold sore medication is effective for you. However, you may also like to use natural remedies toom which can be just as good.

Home remedy for cold sores

The application of ice is one very simple home remedy for cold sores that has proved to be effective.

Application of an ice pack in the latter stages of an attack help to sooth the sore and ease swelling, but it works better still if applied as soon as the tingling sensation is noticed, when it can make a massive difference in slowing the development of the virus.

By chilling the virus as it becomes active we seem to reduce its capability to replicate, minimizing the effects of the outbreak. Since ice is available in all homes it is ideal for rapid action, making it the perfect home remedy for cold sores.

Cold sore symptoms

For most people a tingling sensation is the first symptom of a new cold sore attack, signifying that the immune system can no longer overcome the virus. HSV-1, awoken from its dormant state in the nerve cells, moves to the surface of the skin, replicating as it does so. There it wreaks its damage by destroying skin cells, thereby causing small blisters that merge to create a larger one.

Once the blister bursts, weeping the contagious fluid, an open sore is left; this is both painful to experience and unpleasant to look at and is the biggest problem for many sufferers, who actively avoid social interaction while having an attack. However, after a few days, the sore heals and no scar is left. While it is an unpleasant condition it is not serious, but by starting treatment as soon as cold sore symptoms are noticed the overall healing time can be reduced.

Treatment for cold sores

Standard treatment for cold sores generally uses expensive antiviral drugs like Zovirax, Famvir or Valtrex, which are designed to reduce pain and help faster healing.

These drugs are normally taken by mouth or as a cream, but may also be injected in rare cases. Treatment should begin as soon as symptoms first appear to be most effective, but certainly within 24 hours.

There are also natural remedies that can also have similar healing effects to these drugs. Treatments such as tea tree oil have been demonstrated to help ease symptoms, while applying an ice pack or tea bag can also offer comfort to sufferers or even prevent the virus progressing to the blister stage.

Whether you choose drugs or natural remedies, you won't respond equally to a particular treatment as another individual and so may find one treatment for cold sores better than another.

Preventing cold sores

Preventing cold sores is a question of looking after our body to allow the immune system to work at full capacity. The virus that causes cold sores is usually dormant, only waking when the immune system is weak. Therefore we can help prevent new attacks by eating well, exercising and avoiding stress and other immune system stressors, such as lack of sleep or stress. By preventing cold sores from occurring we need not deal with the nasty symptoms - the ugly scab that seems to take forever to heal and a general feeling of wretchedness.

The problem with cold sore cures

Once infected with the HSV virus we remain infected for life and therefore all the supposed cold sore cures on the market are aimed at easing symptoms rather than eradicating the virus completely.
Treatments can be taken either orally or topically, but effectiveness for treating even the symptoms is limited. Studies have found that alternative and natural remedies can be just as effective as medicinal cold sore cures and it therefore comes down to factors such as price and side effects to decide which options is best of the individual.